The last time Donald Trump delivered a prime-time speech from the Oval Office, in June, he had some dramatic news to deliver about a genuine crisis: a U.S. military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The only crisis Wednesday night’s Oval Office speech addressed was one purely of his own making: steadily worsening public perceptions of his handling of the U.S. economy and particularly the cost of living, probably the key issue that lifted him to the presidency in 2024.

The only news Trump made was that he’s mailing out checks to 1.4 million active-duty military members. This is one of his favorite maneuvers, dating back to the “stimulus checks” he signed in 2020, but servicemembers are probably the smallest group of beneficiaries he could find for this kind of gesture. The amount of these Christmas bonuses, $1,776, is both arbitrary and cheesy, but it will make the troops’ holidays brighter than those of the rest of the U.S. population — particularly the

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